Erkan, Hanife, and their children Bengisu & Aybuke Beren live in Izmit-Kocaeli City, Turkey.
I have seen many pictures that Erkan has taken. He has a wide range of subjects, but I particularly like his nature pictures. He seems to enjoy this pastime very much.
Written By Duane Duff, Canada, 2006.

Manisa [Ottoman Turkish: ماغنيساManisa; Greek: Μαγνησία, Latin: Magnesia] is a large city in Turkey's Aegean Region and the administrative seat of Manisa Province. Historically, the city was also called Magnesia, and more precisely as Magnesia ad Sipylum, by the name of the Mount Sipylus [Spil Dagi: Mount Spil] that towers over the city. The English language root words "magnet" and "magnesia", their derivations, as well as their equivalents in many other languages, derive from the city's name. In Ottoman times, many of the sons of sultans received their education in Manisa and the city is commonly known as "The City Of Shahzades - Princes" [Sehzadeler Sehri] in Turkey, a distinctive title it shares only with Amasya and Trabzon. Today, Manisa is a booming center of industry and services, advantaged by its closeness to the international port city and the regional metropolitan center of Izmir and by its fertile hinterland rich in quantity and variety of agricultural production. Formerly spreading out from the immediate slopes of the Mount Sipylus, Manisa's area of extension more than tripled in size across its vast plain in the last decade, with the construction of new block apartments, industrial zone and Celal Bayar University campus.

For the first time in 2004, and again during the period between 2006 and 07, Manisa scored as the top Turkish city in terms of cost effectiveness, transport, and overall FDI promotion strategy and development in the ranking drawn among cities across 13 European regions by the Financial Times' FDi magazine.

Manisa is also widely visited, especially during March and September festivals and for the nearby Mount Spil national park. It is also a departure point for other visitor attractions of international acclaim which are located nearby within Manisa's depending region, such as Sardes and Alasehir [ancient Philadelphia].

Izmir's proximity also adds a further dimension to all aspects of life's pace in Manisa in the form of a dense traffic of daily commuters between the two cities, separated as they are by an half-hour drive served by a fine six-lane highway nevertheless requiring attention at all times due to its curves and the rapid ascent [sea-level to more than 500 meters at Sabuncubeli Pass] across Mount Sipylus's mythic scenery.

Strabo was born in a wealthy family from Amaseia in Pontus [modern Amasya Turkey], which had recently become part of the Roman Empire. His mother was Georgian. He studied under various geographers and philosophers; first in Nysa, later in Rome. He was philosophically a Stoic and politically a proponent of Roman imperialism.

Later he made extensive travels to Egypt and Kush, among others. It is not known when his Geography was written, though comments within the work itself place the finished version within the reign of Emperor Tiberius. Some place its first drafts around 7 AD, others around 18 AD.

Last dateable mention is given to the death in 23 AD of Juba II, king of Maurousia [Mauretania], who is said to have died "just recently". On the presumption that "recently" means within a year, Strabo stopped writing that year or the next (24 AD), when he died.

Strabo's History is nearly completely lost. Although Strabo quotes it himself, and other classical authors mention that it existed, the only surviving document is a fragment of papyrus now in possession of the University of Milan (renumbered [Papyrus] 46).

Several different dates have been proposed for Strabo's death, but most of them conclude that Strabo died shortly after 23 AD.